Illusions of the Mind & Lies of the Heart: . . .
by Teenage Empress of the Sarcast
Summary: Prologue Part One. . . More to follow. . . R&R, PLEASE!!!!


Prologue: Part One  
  
An eight-year-old girl sat whimpering behind a rock.   
  
"McKenzie! Where ever you are, I'm heading back for dinner!" a boy calls out to his sister then leaves the park to head back to the orphanage.  
  
McKenzie sniffs. Sure. Why not leave your twin out here alone with a hurt ankle, Terry? So typical of you. Think of your stomach before your twin. I'll limp in and you'll wonder why my ankle's so swollen. McKenszie thought sullenly as she sniffs yet again, oblivious to the approach of an eight-year-old Matt.  
  
"Hullo!" Matt says cheerfully. McKenzie quickly wipes away her tears and looks at the boy.   
  
"Hello." McKenzie answers quietly. The boy had blond hair and blue eyes and seemed so happy that McKenzie's mood lifted slightly.  
  
"What's your name?" Matt asks.  
  
"Miruno." McKenzie answers quickly. She had made up a name to tell kids she didn't know.   
  
"'Beauty of rain'. Sounds pretty." Matt replies.  
  
"So what's your name?" McKenzie asks laughing inside that the boy had named the meaning of her chosen name.  
  
"Meiya." Matt answers without hesitation. His father had also told him to choose a name to tell kids he didn't know.  
  
"'Dark fields'. Mysterious. I like it." McKenzie says almost grinning.  
  
Matt was slightly a gape that she would do the same thing that he did.  
  
"For someone who just came over to say hi, you sure don't want to leave." McKenzie says, smiling in her own little world. If that doesn't get rid of him, he wanted something more than to just say 'hi'. McKenzie thinks smugly.  
  
"I heard you crying." Matt says quietly, not wishing to offend the girl in front of him. McKenzie let out a bark of harsh laughter.  
  
"Me? Cry? You've got to be kidding. I'm just fine." McKenzie laughs as she lies to Matt.   
  
"Don't try to fool me, Miruno." Matt says seriously, "You look hurt. I can see it in your eyes and on your face."  
  
"I told you I'm fine." McKenzie says impatiently and stands up, forgetting about her hurt ankle.  
  
"Ah!" McKenzie cries as she falls to the ground. Matt was beside her in a flash.  
  
"Stay still." Matt commands into McKenzie's ear, then moves back to check her leg and ankle.  
  
I hate someone having the advantage over me. McKenzie thinks, her shoulder digging painfully into the dirt, as Matt places pressure on her leg to see if it was broken.  
  
"I don't know why you're doing this," McKenszie complains bitterly to the air, "because I'm perfectly fi- Ah!!!" McKenzie cries out as Matt brushes his elbow against her left ankle.  
  
"Looks like you've got a broken ankle." Matt says backing away from McKenzie, who was struggling to right herself.  
  
McKenzie, sitting on the ground with her feet in front of her, started whimpering again. "I hate this! I hate having the down-side of things!" With that McKenszie sobs into her hands.  
  
Matt carefully moves her so she cries onto his shoulder. "It'll be all right, Miruno." Matt whispers in McKenzie's ear then raises his head.   
  
"T.K., T.K.! Get Dad!" Matt yells to his little brother. The little four-year-old boy that had turned to hear Matt went scampering off to his father.  
  
Matt looked back down at the older girl. "Shh... It'll be okay. My dad'll help you." Matt whispers reassuringly in McKenzie's ear.  
  
"Thank you, Meiya." McKenzie whispers through her sobbing. Matt starts rocking her back and forth gently, like he remembered his mom doing for him when he had been upset.  
  
A week later...  
  
McKenzie walks to the park on crutches. She had nothing better to do, school was out and she had already done her homework. When this happened, which was often, she would go swimming but since she'd broken her ankle, she wasn't allowed to take more than a bath daily.  
  
She crutches her way to the little lake in the middle of the park and sits on a bench near by with a sigh of relief. She was tired from supporting her weight on her hands almost all the time.  
  
As she watches the fountain in the middle of the lake go through its sequence, McKenzie hears notes from a harmonica floating on the light breeze.  
  
Before she even realized it, she hums along with the floating melody while rocking slightly in time with the song.  
  
McKenzie looks around for the player and finds Matt sitting on another bench a ways around the lake.  
  
"Hey Meiya." McKenzie says, walking as best she can towards his bench. Matt looks up with a jerk and smiles when he sees McKenszie approaching.  
  
"Hey Miruno!" Matt exclaims happily. McKenzie smiles.  
  
"So, what have you been up to, Meiya?" McKenzie asks quasi-cheerfully. She was still tired from the walk to the park.  
  
  
"I've just been practicing." Matt answers, holding up the harmonica in his hand as an explanation.  
  
"That's good." McKenzie replies although she was becoming jealous of Matt. He doesn't have to give up his favorite thing to do for two months because he broke his ankle. McKenzie thought jealously while trying to hide it with a smile.  
  
"Don't lie, Miruno." Matt says without hesitation. Whoa. Where did that come from? Matt thought in shock. How could I have been so rude to this girl?  
  
"Why do you think I'm lying, Meiya?" McKenzie asks, genuinely interested yet upset that he had questioned her.  
  
"I can hear it in your voice." Matt replies. Matt shakes his head in his own disbelief of his reply.  
  
McKenzie starts laughing, quiet but genuine, slowly getting louder. Matt thought that she was laughing at his response. "I know it sounds crazy but I do." Matt tries to reassure her, and, not to mention, himself at the same time.  
  
"That's not why I'm laughing, Meiya." McKenzie giggles but had a note of seriousness in her voice.  
  
"Then why are you laughing?" Matt asks, thoroughly confused at the girl's strange behavior.  
  
"It's just that whenever I told that lie to my brother, who has known me his entire life, he believed it. Then you come along and proclaim it a lie outright and you've only known me for about a week." McKenzie answers and starts laughing again.  
  
"Yeah. I guess that would be kinda funny." Matt replies hesitantly.  
  
"Meiya?" McKenzie asks, suddenly recovering from her laughing fit.  
  
"Yes Miruno?" Matt replies.  
  
"Could you teach me how to play like that?" McKenzie asks shyly.  
  
"Sure I could, but not today. I don't have another harmonica with me and this one is one of my dad's." Matt replies hastily.  
  
"Okay. That's fine. I have two months until I can swim again and I might as well learn something." McKenzie shrugs.  
  
"Can we meet here, tomorrow? I can bring two harmonicas then." Matt asks, smiling.  
  
"That sounds great, Meiya. I'll see you tomorrow." McKenzie replies and crutches off towards the orphanage.  
  
"See you then, Miruno!" Matt calls after her.  
  
  
Seven weeks later (10/9/96)...  
  
"Hey Meiya!" McKenzie calls out to her, now, best friend.  
  
"Miruno!" Matt exclaims in shock then quickly hides what had been in his lap a moment before.  
  
McKenzie smiles. Meiya's so nice, even when it's not my birthday. She thought as she walks without the crutches for the second day in months. She still had a little bit of a hobble to her step but that was to be expected. Swimming would help her work out the stiff muscles.  
  
"Wha' 'cha hidin', Meiya?" McKenzie asks, a note of mischievousness in her light soprano voice.  
  
"Nothing." Matt answers nonchalantly. McKenzie sees right through his coolness and smiles.  
  
"Don't lie, Meiya. I saw you hide a package behind your back." McKenzie says with a giggle.  
  
Matt smiles sheepishly. He had been hoping to surprise her with his gift. She had told him that she didn't expect anything from him except the harmonica lessons.  
  
"All right." Matt says, taking the package from behind his back, and hands it to McKenzie.  
  
"I told you not to get me anything." McKenzie scolds, smiling at Matt.  
  
"No, you said that you didn't expect anything." Matt corrects, grinning maliciously because he knew he had trapped McKenzie in her own words.  
  
McKenzie unwraps the package carefully, almost too slowly for Matt's patience, glaring all the while at Matt. When she saw the gift, she gasps in delight. She takes the item out of its white box, revealing a small sterling silver flute.  
  
"Meiya! It's beautiful! I love it!" McKenzie says happily, holding the small sterling flute tightly in her small hands.  
  
"I thought you might like it." Matt replies.  
  
"Where'd you get the money? You don't get that kind of money just from allowance." McKenzie asks.  
  
"Well... I kinda asked Tochi to help me out... Hehe." Matt answers laughing slightly in nervousness. "It's a shame I don't have anything to play on of my own too. I don't own any instruments. My dad taught me how to play on his." Matt says, looking down at the sand beneath his feet.   
  
"Now that's where you're wrong, Meiya!" McKenzie exclaims grinning. She reached into her pocket and brought out a package wrapped in all shades of blue.  
  
"Go on. Open it, Meiya. I got it for you now since I missed your birthday this year." McKenzie encourages Matt.  
  
Matt carefully unwrapped the package, trying to show McKenzie that he had patience too. When he finally got the wrapping paper off, there was a small piece of tissue paper wrapping the object. Matt takes the tissue paper off and out rolls a gleaming harmonica.  
  
"Mi- Miruno... This must have cost a lot of money!" Matt exclaims in shock.  
  
"True. But it just means that Tochi and I don't move as soon as we'd like. That's a sacrifice that we can make for friends." McKenzie answers with a sigh.   
  
She knew that Matt had longed to have a harmonica of his own and not just a borrowed one from his dad.  
  
"Now... Teach me how to play." McKenzie says with a tone of finality in her voice.   
  
"Okay. First, you place your lips to the little hole at the top. That's the closed end, not the open end." Matt instructs, grinning slightly.  
  
When McKenzie gets the flute to her lips, her eyes widen. She turns the flute slightly and raises it so she could look at it closely, then gasps.  
  
"Read it." Matt tells McKenzie.   
  
" 'To Miruno, 2 Good 2 4Get'. Thank you so much, Meiya!" McKenzie exclaims. "Now you read yours."  
  
Only then did Matt notice the engraving on his new harmonica. He moves it into the shade of his own shadow and reads, " 'For Meiya, Best Friends 4Ever'. It's wonderful Miruno."  
  
McKenzie merely smiles.  
  
"Happy birthday, Miruno." Matt says quietly.  
  
"Thank you, Meiya." McKenzie replies.  
  
Matt abruptly returns to his lesson. "Now, where were we?"  
  
McKenzie smiles again and returns her attention to Matt's lesson.  
  
  
Four months, one week and five days later (2/21/97)...  
  
"I finally get to move out of the orphanage, Meiya." McKenzie says happily but Meiya didn't seem too thrilled.  
  
"Meiya? Meiya, don't you realize how much this means to me and my brother?" McKenzie asks, desperately trying to get a positive reaction from her best friend.  
  
"Yes, Miruno, it just... what if I can't find you?" Matt asks uncertainly.  
  
"Of course you'll be able to find me. We'll be in the same school, remember?" McKenzie says, trying to reassure Matt.  
  
"There are three elementary schools in the city. What if I wind up at one and you wind up at another one?" Matt asks worriedly.  
  
"We'll meet again. I know it. I'm psychic about these things." McKenzie states, still trying to smooth over any doubts that Matt had left.  
  
They had been friends for almost half a year now and they knew the other like they knew themselves, if not better.   
  
"Meiya, let's say you're right for just a minute or two. If we don't meet again, take this and always remember me." McKenzie says and hands Matt a picture.  
  
It was a picture of Matt and McKenzie that Terry took when they'd gone to the Autumn Festival. Terry had snapped the picture quickly when McKenzie tripped on a crack and fallen down, tripping Matt in the process. In the picture, McKenzie was laughing madly, half on top of Matt, who was also laughing. It was basically one pile of two laughing kids.  
  
Matt grimaced. "Oh my... Tochi got a picture of that?" he asks plaintively.  
  
"That's what I said after he got the film developed." McKenzie says with a smile that could almost be a smirk.  
  
"What did you do to him?" Matt asks flatly. He had always seen the way that McKenzie and Terry fought but it always ended with them off for the better.  
  
"Oh... Just a few little trivial pranks. Nothing permanent." McKenzie answers with a sly smile.  
  
"Um... As long as we're on the topic, take this." Matt says and takes out a small pendant in the shape of a crescent moon.  
  
"I know it doesn't have a chain but my mom kinda lost that and gave me the pendant." Matt says hastily.  
  
McKenzie only smiles, what looks suspiciously like tears forming in her eyes. Out of the blue, she hugs Matt, burying her face in Matt's shoulder.  
  
"I could never forget you, Meiya!" McKenzie practically sobs into Matt's shoulder. Matt pushes her away so he could look her in the face.  
  
"You said it yourself, we will meet again. Whether it's sooner or later is totally up to someone else." Matt says forcefully, shaking sense into his friend, metaphorically speaking that is.  
  
"You're right, Meiya. I'm just being foolish." McKenzie replies with a grin. She tucks the pendant into her jacket pocket and hugs Matt again.  
  
"What was that for, Miruno?" Matt asks.  
  
"That was for being my best friend." McKenzie grins and wipes her face with her jacket sleeve.  
  
The two children hear a car pull up and a man steps out. The man calls for Matt and he stands up.  
  
"I guess I'd better get going." Matt says, trying to sound cheerful.  
  
"Yeah. Me too. I need to get packing." McKenzie replies, standing as well. "See ya 'round, Meiya!" McKenzie waves and walks off in the other direction.  
  
When Matt got home, he placed the picture in a frame that he'd made for an art class and set the frame by his harmonica.   
  
"Matt! Dinner!" Mr. Ishida calls.  
  
Oh no. Dad cooked. Matt thinks grimly and leaves his room, glancing back at the picture for just a moment, and shuts the door.  
  
  
Across town...  
  
McKenzie sat down on her bed in her now almost barren room. Every thing she owned was either packed or ready to be packed.  
  
She would finally be moving into her own apartment. Granted, she would have to share it with Terry but that was bearable.  
  
"You almost done, McKenzie?" Terry asks from the hallway beyond her bedroom door.  
  
"Yeah. I have just a few more things to pack." McKenzie answers, glancing at her bedside table.  
  
On the table, were only a few items; a small, light blue lamp with a dark blue rose painted on the lampshade, a clear-blue alarm clock and a blue picture frame with orange tabby cats.   
  
The picture inside the frame had rested there for about a quarter of a year but it seemed like only yesterday to McKenzie.  
  
At the Autumn Festival again, Terry had snapped the picture. McKenzie and Matt were giving each other bunny ears. McKenzie smiles, lingering on the memory. I hope I see Meiya again soon. McKenzie thought, getting out her Sailor Saturn duffle bag and places the picture and frame carefully in the bag.  
  
"McKenzie! Get down here!" yells Miss Tanegachi, the manager of the orphanage.  
  
"Coming!" McKenzie calls back, setting the duffle on her bed, and runs down the steps.  
  
Authoress's Note I and Disclaimer: Okay. Disclaimer first. I don't own Matt or Digimon in general. I DO own McKenzie, Terry, Miss Tanegachi, the pictures, the small flute and the crescent moon pendant. ^_^ I don't own the Autumn Festival b/c there is such a thing in Japan (I think...). If you liked this, please review. I roast hot dogs and marshmellows on flames so don't bother. I finally got my stock of hot dogs and marshmellows rejuvenated. Illusions of the Mind and Lies of the Heart: Prologue Part Two will be coming soon. Tah-tah 'til then! Sincerely Yours, ~_^Teenage Empress Of the Sarcastians^_~  
  
Authoress's Note II: Yes, I do get hand cramps type my PenName and these long, informitive Disclamers and Authoress's Notes. Just to forstall any questions about it. Tah-tah til later! ~TES 


End file.
